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4/1/2007
THE AFTERMATH OF THE NEW YORK LIFE INSURANCE SETTLEMENT
In the Public View
by Hrag Vartanian

Three years after the successful class action suit against New York Life Insurance that won $20 million for heirs of the Armenian Genocide victims, there are some loose ends remaining of a dispute that has lasted eight decades.

Lead plaintiff in the case of Marootian, et al. v. New York Life, Martin Marootian, now 91 and living in the Los Angeles area, received the largest payout from the case, $250,000. He is glad to be alive to see the result. "It did come out favorably and it opened up the path for future cases," he said, referring to how the New York Life case encouraged other Armenian Genocide heirs to demand their rights against one French firm, AXA, and two German companies, Deutschebank and Viktoria.

His wife, Seda, is also relieved but admits to being a little perplexed as to how the process worked, "I know [the lawyers] tried to get everybody who had insurance claims to come forward but my sisters and relatives that were related to the insured didn't get anything."

George Yacoubian, of Philadelphia, filed a claim three years ago for his paternal grandfather, Armenag Minas Yacoubian, who was a policyholder. But when Yacoubian, now 69, went looking for the documents to verify his claim, something unexpected happened. "I discovered that my grandfather's original name was Terziyacoubian, not Yacoubian. It was typed on the back of his naturalization papers. I never knew my grandfather had changed his name."

After completing all the paperwork, he finalized his claim this year. "I received an envelope and thought they wanted more information, but then a check tumbled out. I put it on the kitchen table for two weeks and I couldn't pick it up or look at it. I was overwhelmed and can't explain, almost embarrassed, though I don't know why I should be embarrassed. Then I realized I had to put that money to work," he says. Now, armed with the $11,000 from the New York Life settlement, Yacoubian is traveling to Armenia to donate the money to a project in honor of his grandfather's memory.

The three lawyers who have led the charge for corporate accountability on behalf of the heirs are Mark Geragos, Brian Kabatek and Vartkes Yeghiayan. Kabatek explained that the post-settlement process has been straightforward, and of the $20 million settlement, $3 million has been give to charities, $4 million has been allocated to legal fees, $1 million to administrative costs and $12 million to the heirs themselves. "There is a separate settlement fund board that has distributed over $8 million [of the $12 million] to claimants and they say the process is complete. We have just shy of $4 million remaining and that will be distributed to charities in the United States to help the disadvantaged," he says.

After the success with New York Life, Geragos, Kabatek & Yeghiayan initiated other cases, including one against French insurance company AXA that was settled for $17.5 million last summer. The team is pursuing two other cases against German firms.

"Deutschebank is the first bank that has been sued," Kabatek says. "The irony is, historically Armenians deposited with German banks because they thought they were more secure than a Turkish bank. The Germans are fighting it really hard, which is surprising considering their history [with the Jews during the Holocaust]." Kabatek says that they may be forced to go through the European courts in The Hague for some relief from the German deadlock.

In a recent twist to the German case, which is playing out in California courts, a letter from the Turkish Ambassador to the United States, Nabi Sensoy, has been mailed to U.S. District Judge, Margaret M. Morrow.

Dated February 23, 2007, the Ambassador writes, "I am deeply concerned that the plaintiffs have asked you to sit in judgment on Turkey's sovereign acts carried out within its territory, from which I would request that you refrain," and adding elsewhere, "I would suggest that your use of the term, 'Armenian Genocide,' is inappropriate."

Kabatek is not surprised that the Turkish government is attempting to meddle in the American justice system but he dismisses the political posturing.

"Most people need to realize that [what we have accomplished with the New York Life case] is a symbolic result, instead of a financial gain. I hope that charities will benefit from this final stage of the result," he says, referring to the money that remains before the final chapter of the New York Life Settlement comes to an end.

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